Wendy suggested that I get these up quickly. Our laptop has a small memory and came with a crappy read-only version of Word so I'm using Wordpad which doesn't have editing tools. Placing it quickly trumps placing it edited three months later.
Feb. 16 Day 1
After many exhausting days of getting our house packed up and signed over to our leasees we thanked Derek and Hayley for letting us crash at their place and driving us to the airport. Lineups were short and Wendy(Owen's sister) was at the gate. The only stress came when I checked my g-mail and found that I had booked a hotel in Patagonia for Feb. 17 instead of March 17 and worked on correcting that problem.
On the plane, the woman sitting next to us was willing to trade seats with Wendy so we got to sit together. The only bad things about it was that we were last row so our seats had no reclinability. After a few hours we needed to stretch our legs and so met up with our new friend, blue-coiffed Sticky. She works with an agency dealing with drug addiction so had lots to talk about with Wendy and Meg and also was the bassist in Weeping Tile, amongst other projects so lots more to chat about. The whole flight was pretty painless and they handed out Kitkats with lunch.
Cartagena customs was overstaffed as it appeared that half of the officers were just texting on their phones. That was because one officer took our $90 entry fee and the other looked at the receipt for that fee and then stamped our passports. Wendy had left her customs slip on the plane but the woman taking the slips didn't want to find a new blank one for her and so changed the family of two slip (Meg and mine) to a family of 3 slip.
The instructions for getting a cab were clearly posted, which gave us some relief and two of our co-travellers on our Peru trip were car-jacked upon their arrival. The taxi took us mainly along the coast until we went through a gate through some only city walls into the old city of Cartagena, UNESCO heritage site. Our first impression was that it was a labyrinth of one-way and closed streets with vendors walking everywhere and taxis honking at stopped vehicles and potential customers. Our hotel had basic, clean rooms and setup with a wonderful courtyard area filled with palm trees, flowers and disassembled scaffolding.
Meg needed a nap so Wendy and I went out exploring. The sidewalks were narrow and sometimes blocked, forcing us onto the roads where the traffic was busy but slow-moving. We saw a park where these yellow-breasted birds flew like bats as they tried to eat big bugs. There were beggars that offered you a candy presumably in exchange for a handout. Vendors constantly offered you their wares but left you alone once you said no, which made the process much less threatening than when we travelled in Egypt and Morocco. Most of the restaurants offered pizza and many had touts promoting them, which in our experience has meant mediocre, overpriced food. We saw plants along the street completely covered in cages, which I suppose would protect them but cancelled out any beautification value.
We saw some dancers by the city wall that were always finishing up their routine when we peeked over to see what they were up to. There was a market where stall after stall displayed cookies and candy and many of the candies looked like multi-coloured sea urchins.
Back at the hotel we woke Meg up and got advice from the guy at the front desk. Yes we could drink the tap water (although this is much debated online), no we could not put toilet paper in the toilet and the place to experience Columbian food was the Plaza de Santa Dominga, so off we went.
The plaza was a large one across from a church ad was set up with outdoor tables and roaming touts. We looked for options around the square but all of the tables were served by one pizza joint. We then went to a seafood restaurant that overlooked the square and watched to fun. There were musicians circulating with guitars and accordions offering to serenade tables. All of the people receiving their services looked happy so I don't think they forced themselves on anyone. There seemed to be a code as when one band started up the others took a break so there was rarely more than one song going on at a time. There was an amatuerish belly dancer and a very good group of break dancers who put on shows in the middle of the square for about 5 minutes and then went around to the tables with a hat. We were glad to be above the square as there was a constant flow of vendors selling knick knacks, noisemakers and glow sticks circulating amongst the tables. There were also two Spider Mans and a Bat Man but they just seemed to be hanging around. The other attraction in the square was a reclining statue of a large naked woman whose buttocks were shiny from being rubbed. This seemed to be THE photo spot on the square. Our food was overpriced and just okay (are rock lobsters always dry of did they cook it wrong?). Our waiter was ethically sketchy as he insisted that the SV 10% on our bill wasn't for service but was a tax. He also told us the line wasn't working for Visa and so we needed to pay cash. Hmmm.
We were wiped, so we strolled back early and went to bed, glad for the air conditioning.
Feb. 16 Day 1
After many exhausting days of getting our house packed up and signed over to our leasees we thanked Derek and Hayley for letting us crash at their place and driving us to the airport. Lineups were short and Wendy(Owen's sister) was at the gate. The only stress came when I checked my g-mail and found that I had booked a hotel in Patagonia for Feb. 17 instead of March 17 and worked on correcting that problem.
On the plane, the woman sitting next to us was willing to trade seats with Wendy so we got to sit together. The only bad things about it was that we were last row so our seats had no reclinability. After a few hours we needed to stretch our legs and so met up with our new friend, blue-coiffed Sticky. She works with an agency dealing with drug addiction so had lots to talk about with Wendy and Meg and also was the bassist in Weeping Tile, amongst other projects so lots more to chat about. The whole flight was pretty painless and they handed out Kitkats with lunch.
Cartagena customs was overstaffed as it appeared that half of the officers were just texting on their phones. That was because one officer took our $90 entry fee and the other looked at the receipt for that fee and then stamped our passports. Wendy had left her customs slip on the plane but the woman taking the slips didn't want to find a new blank one for her and so changed the family of two slip (Meg and mine) to a family of 3 slip.
The instructions for getting a cab were clearly posted, which gave us some relief and two of our co-travellers on our Peru trip were car-jacked upon their arrival. The taxi took us mainly along the coast until we went through a gate through some only city walls into the old city of Cartagena, UNESCO heritage site. Our first impression was that it was a labyrinth of one-way and closed streets with vendors walking everywhere and taxis honking at stopped vehicles and potential customers. Our hotel had basic, clean rooms and setup with a wonderful courtyard area filled with palm trees, flowers and disassembled scaffolding.
Meg needed a nap so Wendy and I went out exploring. The sidewalks were narrow and sometimes blocked, forcing us onto the roads where the traffic was busy but slow-moving. We saw a park where these yellow-breasted birds flew like bats as they tried to eat big bugs. There were beggars that offered you a candy presumably in exchange for a handout. Vendors constantly offered you their wares but left you alone once you said no, which made the process much less threatening than when we travelled in Egypt and Morocco. Most of the restaurants offered pizza and many had touts promoting them, which in our experience has meant mediocre, overpriced food. We saw plants along the street completely covered in cages, which I suppose would protect them but cancelled out any beautification value.
 |
| Prisons for plants. |
Back at the hotel we woke Meg up and got advice from the guy at the front desk. Yes we could drink the tap water (although this is much debated online), no we could not put toilet paper in the toilet and the place to experience Columbian food was the Plaza de Santa Dominga, so off we went.
The plaza was a large one across from a church ad was set up with outdoor tables and roaming touts. We looked for options around the square but all of the tables were served by one pizza joint. We then went to a seafood restaurant that overlooked the square and watched to fun. There were musicians circulating with guitars and accordions offering to serenade tables. All of the people receiving their services looked happy so I don't think they forced themselves on anyone. There seemed to be a code as when one band started up the others took a break so there was rarely more than one song going on at a time. There was an amatuerish belly dancer and a very good group of break dancers who put on shows in the middle of the square for about 5 minutes and then went around to the tables with a hat. We were glad to be above the square as there was a constant flow of vendors selling knick knacks, noisemakers and glow sticks circulating amongst the tables. There were also two Spider Mans and a Bat Man but they just seemed to be hanging around. The other attraction in the square was a reclining statue of a large naked woman whose buttocks were shiny from being rubbed. This seemed to be THE photo spot on the square. Our food was overpriced and just okay (are rock lobsters always dry of did they cook it wrong?). Our waiter was ethically sketchy as he insisted that the SV 10% on our bill wasn't for service but was a tax. He also told us the line wasn't working for Visa and so we needed to pay cash. Hmmm.
We were wiped, so we strolled back early and went to bed, glad for the air conditioning.
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| The square: half diners and half entrepreneurs. |
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| The intrepid travellers. |
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